from the author

The idea for this book sprouted when I wanted to teach my children to memorize Scripture verses. I was looking for a book that had a verse to memorize, a story to explain the verse, and an activity to help the child remember what he had learned. When I did not find one, I decided to make my own. Now I would like to share it with you.

I wanted the verses my children learned to be more than merely a recitation. I wanted them to understand how God's Word applies to their lives.

The stories help to do this; but as a parent, you should also keep your eyes open for opportunities in real life to reinforce the lessons taught in these verses.

What is the value of teaching Bible verses to such young children? With enough explanation, even a young child can understand truth amazingly well. If your child does not find memorization easy, he can still benefit from the stories. God's Word will not return to Him void.

A friend commented that she could recite many nursery rhymes before she went to school, but she said, "What help has it been to me in life?" Another mother who was also teaching Bible verses to her young children (they were three and not quite two) made the comment, "The bad will come, so I want to work at filling their minds with good things." May we take this responsibility seriously, counting it a privilege.

In the back of this book, you will find a chart with reduced pictures to go with each verse. You can remove the chart from the book and put it on a wall or door at your child's level. You could use stickers, draw a happy face, color the box, or cut small pictures from a magazine to glue beside the verse pictures as your child learns them. Since the book is geared toward children who are too young to read, the pictures will give them prompts as they recite all the verses they have learned so far. For my own children, I said the first word of each verse to prompt them, since they learned these verses before the chart was made.